Tres Bon, Josh!

Perhaps ask the students what they want to learn, nobody ever considers what the students want, why start something then half way through quit it, what is that teaching our students

'Very good' (Tres Bon) -- and well to Tom, Josh and other speakers of the French language. But I must say I have often wondered how I, and I suspect many millions of other Australians have managed to get by in life without having learned the French language. Certainly if one is ever fortunate enough to travel to France, or countries where French is one of the main languages spoken, a grasp of the language would obviously be most beneficial.

Colin Carrington, 7/09/2010 11:40:21 AM Having lived and working for the UN for 7 years in Noumea, New Caledonia, I attained a good command of French. Then, when spending a year in Costa Rica, this knowledge was invaluable to get a quick basic command of Spanish, both being latin based languages. Sometimes learning one language, makes it easier to learn another. You don't need to travel to other countries to have value from knowing the language. There are papers, magazines, DVD's, TV and radio broadcasts, or family/acquaintances speaking another language. Of course actually going there is the ultimate experience not all of us can afford. I agree with the comments that losing French teaching will be a loss for Bendigo.

David Klein, 8/09/2010, How fortunate you have been with your travels resulting from employment. I do not imply you were not deserving of those positions. Nor did I state in my original post that I actually supported the loss of French teaching in Bendigo. I made some statements based on my experiences and opinions. Good oh, to you and other globetrotters. But not everyone has the same opportunities - as you have acknowledged - and desire to do, and 'achieve' , in multi lingual areas and international employment as you have. Did I possibly detect a slight 'blowing of a trumpet' in the background of your post? Pleased to see you back 'online' and adding your 'two bob's worth'. It is great how The Advertiser permit people from differing backgrounds and with differing views to express their opinions through posts.

Colin Carrington, 8/09/2010 1:27:25 PM Colin, neither did I imply that you supported the issue. Was I fortunate to work overseas? It took many risks and uncertainties too as well as making good, bad and unavoidable decissions. The slight 'blowing of a trumpet' came, believe me, from a very small trumpet; a toy one if you like. I merely wanted to indicate the value of speaking another language, referenced to my own experiences. Travel does not always result from employment, sometimes it is the result of losing employment and taking a gamble. Sometimes it comes from family circumstances that arrive without notice. Sometimes opportunities fall in our lap but mostly the are created for good (or bad) reasons. Opportunities always come in life from whatever social background. Then comes recognition of an opportunity judged against the ability to act. Of course, if one is born in a rich family there are more options to become rich too, even without effort or risk. There are plenty of rags to riches stories, but as a percentage of almost 7 billion people, it is a minuscule fraction. So the majority of us are inbetween and must create our own opportunities.

David, thank you for your informative and dare I say 'more balanced' post of 10/9/10, compared to 8/9/10 - but of course that is just my opinion. I am not really expecting to get the 'last word in' on this 'subject', but I'll state this is my last post on this thread.